shallow citrus review
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| spoiler free |
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♞disclaimer: this is just for the anime and not the manga as I have not read it yet!
♜background: Citrus was the first yuri anime I watched lol so I am still not familiar with all of the common tropes... (besides the light hair x dark hair and bubbly x toxic person matchups obviously). I had to be pleaded with to watch this because I am awful at finishing shows.
♞overall rating: 6/10 using MAL scale. It was entertaining, the art was good, and it had some plot backing up the circumstances. Definitely not a masterpiece in any way which was a shame because my friend really hyped this up for me.... I LOVE and ADORE Yuzu! She was such a lovable protagonist and carried this show 100% which is why my rating is pretty high.
♜worth watching?
This would be a passing yes depending on your circumstances, and the fact I determine this off of entertainment and not quality for this show specifically. With friends? Absolutely, because it would get a lot of laughs and secondhand embarrassment. By yourself? No for THAT kind of "me time" but yes for casual fun. I say to watch it for Yuzu.
♞character visual design
In general, I liked the overall style of how characters were drawn! It gave a feminine, delicate, high school girly prettiness that matched the theme. I am also talking about the manga too, which I didn't read, but I did skim some in the bookstore.
Yuzu: The blonde, bubbly, and slightly rebellious side of this match, Yuzu's personal kogal-esque fashion-sense is what made her unique. I want to point out that I really appreciated how Yuzu stuck out because of her personal style by using makeup, jewelry, and hair-styles (that actually CHANGED occasionally bravo!) which are against school dress code. This really added to her charm and the fact she goes against what's accepted.
Mei: Playing off the shy, studious, and reserved student council president traits, Mei's design fit that to the bill. That would of course be giving her dark hair and eyes to give a sense of coldness and conservatism. Like Yuzu, Mei also was a main character that did not force the usual making it obvious that she was important to the show. I don't have a lot to say about Mei, because she is well... normal... which is the point! So good job with that ( ་ ⍸ ་ )
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| not spoiler free |
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♜some tropes I saw with comments:
schoolgirls: resulting to spicy time in their uniforms LOL which is pretty creepy ( ˘•̥ _•̥ ˘ ), but I watched this in HS so I'm valid
written for guys...: meaning quality and realism of plot automatically goes downhill for the nut... I feel like it would be super hard to tug one to citrus unless you're really desperate. if you did please never talk to me and go to therapy. I would also assume you can be found on a local sexual offender list.
not actually lesbian with one exception: I'm mainly pointing fingers at Yuzu here because Mei did kiss that middle school gremlin and was in a very short relationship with Sara. But I feel kind of bad for this because Yuzu did appear to be confused with her sexuality. I could be completely wrong about this, but this is my assumption from observations.
opposites attract: its a pet peeve of mine that this is a thing because it mostly results in failed relationships, yet TV-wise it's pretty entertaining. when can we have a love story where the characters have something in common besides sexual tension and forbidden love???
step sisters!: better than biological siblings to say the least... I appreciate some slightly more ethical taboo. Neither of them got stuck in the washing machine (which is why I have this under the spoiler section)
contrasting colors: when the couple has the opposite hair color which somehow determines their personalities. like zodiac signs but worse.
the almost do it but dont @ the last second: this trope is super common everywhere and is just a normal addition to creating suspense. I have a love-hate thing for this, as Mei or Yuzu always stopped at the last second before committing to spicy time.
♞the dumpster fires encountered:
Matsuri: The world's strangest and incorrect attempt for an antagonist ever. Take a toxic, desperate, manipulative and equally sexually frustrated discord kitten e-girl who is in JUNIOR HIGH and have her come out of nowhere near the end of the show. I really disliked how Matsuri followed the main-character route with bright pink hair that contrasted against literally every other character. Matsuri was the turning point for me where I really saw citrus go downhill in my heart, and was ultimately my least favorite thing about the show. Matsuri definitely contributed to citrus's property of being written for guys and ruined the show for me.
Mei: I have no idea how someone as genuinely good as Yuzu managed to convince herself she is in love with a person as awful as Mei. Frankly, Mei and Matsuri would have been better together as they both love to assault and manipulate others. My friend actually really liked Mei because she was 'dominant' (I'm assuming) but WTF, she was so frustrating to have as a love interest. I'm all for the perfect girl with a devious side archetype, but Mei's problematic tendencies outweighed that. Even though Yuzu treated her with kindness and support through all of that madness of Mei going back and forth of wanting to be more than sisters, Mei still treated her terribly. If you like Mei you need to enroll in relationship counseling, uninstall discord and use an internet safety filter to remember how good relationships work.
Sara and Nina: I really don't know why these two existed besides to create a really awkward feeling when watching Sara prepare to confess her sudden love for Mei. This was really odd and uncomfortable to watch in comparison to Yuzu and Mei's relationship taking much more time and effort to build up. Also the fact that Mei agreed to date Sara after leading on Yuzu for so long, I concluded that Sara demonstrated for me of how questionable and stable Mei was as a person. I also caught the feeling that Sara and Nina had their own strange slight twincest thing going on as Nina was straight up invading Yuzu's personal life for Sara's personal gain. Going along what I said about Matsuri sticking out in a crowd, these two also did and did not match the other characters in the series at all...
♜good things!
Yuzu: Obviously my favorite character was Yuzu... because of how she is a good person! Even when Sara was briefly dating Mei, she never interfered or professed her own feelings to hopefully change Mei's mind about Sara! Yuzu has a lot of charm and is a really well-made character! I actually enjoyed watching her internal conflict when Mei made her questionable advances and literally gaslighted her by acting like nothing happened. During the Christmas episode I was really impressed when she denied Mei, even though it was kind of frustrating that she didn't give in to her own desires.
Harumin: The friendship between Harumin and Yuzu mirrored what a childish high schooler pairing would actually be like irl! These two had a lot in common due to their rebellious tendencies, and they were fun to watch together rather than the drab queen of angst and darkness Mei. Why couldn't there be an innocent rom-com between Yuzu and Harumin instead?
♞conclusion
Writing about all the bad things completely exhausted me so I will stop here. Even with all of my gripes I still stand by my suggestion to watch citrus! It wasn't that bad and is kind of educational on what not to do in a relationship.... I'm no yuri expert, yet, but as a noob with low yuri quality standards it was your typical yet questionable romance anime.
